What are your favorite recordings that sound best to you?


What would be the best sounding records you have ever listened to that sound best to you regardless of its genre, pressing, mastering, label, value or a technology used to record it?

esputnix

I own about 2500 LPs.  So at any given moment there are a few thousand LPs that I have not listened to "lately".  Seems to me that every time I pull out a few LPs that are not in regular rotation, I discover another gem.  Therefore, it would be utterly impossible to name one favorite. However, one can always bank on Reference Recordings, Sheffield, ECM, Pablo, Contemporary (for jazz), Riverside (for jazz), the latter day version of Impulse ("Jasmine"), and an occasional other oddball and surprising label to provide a memorable listening experience.  This is on either of my two audio systems using any of the 5 cartridges and tonearms currently mounted on 5 turntables.

 

 

 

 

Billy Barber - both

Grusin - Discovered Again!

Kevin Gilbert - The Shaming of the True 

ELP - '70 debut

 

 

So many, but these are examples from my listening session today that come to mind (not on LP, but hopefully it’s consistent with the streaming, cd recording quality of these albums)…

Peter Frampton - Acoustic Classics

Ballake Sissoko & Vincent Segal - Chamber Music

The Toure-Raichel Collective - Tel Aviv Sessions

 

The further I come along in this audio journey, the less I refer to my reference albums to check on my system. Reason is I get sick listening to this couple dozen albums over and over again. I much rather play a wider inventory even so it has some sound limitations, because by now I can easily discern those shortcomings and work on my system accordingly. I have been purposely ignoring my reference albums so I can enjoy their music once again down the road. To me life is too short to let my system narrow down my musical experience to a few reference albums no matter how great they sound.